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Can you diagnose? (Pioneer PL-05 issue)

unclepratt

unclepratt

New Member
I have a Pioneer PL-05 turntable. It's part of my Pioneer CB-05 rack system. I can barely hear the music on the turntable through the speakers.

I plugged in the receiver (SA-05) into the wall, plugged the TT power into the receiver (as directed in the user manual), plugged the TT outs into the receiver ins (as directed), connected the ground wire properly.

When I put a record on, it spins up just fine. The stylus his the vinyl just fine. I can hear the sound off of the actual record just fine. But when I set the receiver to the proper input mode (phono), I can barely hear music when volume is almost maxed out.

What is the issue? Any questions that I can answer to help diagnose? ask away! :)
 
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Hmm. Is that the amp with the slider controls?
Are you just cranking the Master volume or also the volume for the source?
I take it you've plugged the TT into the PHONO inputs on the back of the receiver? What sort of cartridge is on the TT ?
Have you tried just plugging the TT into a normal power socket?
 
mhainz said:
Hmm. Is that the amp with the slider controls?
Are you just cranking the Master volume or also the volume for the source?
I take it you've plugged the TT into the PHONO inputs on the back of the receiver? What sort of cartridge is on the TT ?
Have you tried just plugging the TT into a normal power socket?
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It is the amp with the slider controls. The slider controls you're thinking of are only operable in "mixing mode". So I am just cranking the master volume (in "normal mode") on this thing.

I've plugged the TT into the PHONO inputs on the back of the receiver, yes.

It's a PC-3MC cartridge.

I tried pluggin the TT into a normal wall socket that I know works, to no avail; same issue. Thank you for chiming in.
 
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That cartridge is a Moving Coil (MC) type. I don't have the specs on that one but MC as a rule are much lower output than Moving Magnet cartridges. If your amp doesn't say MC near the Phono jacks or on a switch in front it's likely just not compatible.
 
The fact that this rack was sold all over the world by Pioneer as a single unit (receiver and turntable among the unit) leads me to believe it's not an issue of compatibility.
If it's not an issue of compatibility, maybe something is broken. Something that would break over time even without a lot of use. This thing sat in an air conditioned house in Mesa AZ from 1983 to 2015 with probably 20-30 hours of use total.
 

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Is there a switch either on the front or maybe on the back labelled mm/mc? If so then it should be on mc for moving coil cartridge.
 
Has the needle bonding glue give up and the needle pushed through the top of the stylus or has the stylus suspension collapsed maybe
 
A bit of troubleshooting is in order here. You want to check each part of the system as independently as possible.

Turn the system off.
Turn the Master volume ALL the way down.
Unplug your turntable.
Take a phone, ipod or mp3 player, or some other portable device and plug that into the phono jacks. You will need one of these:
Turn the output of the player ALL the way down.
Start a song or recording playing on the player with the volume all the way down.
Turn on the Amp and slowly bring the volume up to a normal listening position. Stop if you start to hear the recording.
Now slowly bring up the volume on the player. Stop if you hear the music. It will sound lousy but you will hear it.

If all that works it means your amp is working OK and the problem is in the turntable or interconnects.
 
Montycat said:
Sometimes a stylus tip will break off and you essentially will be running on a stump. It will sort of work and even sort of track but it could be the issue here.
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The best photos I can muster for now. Thoughts?
 

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Can't make conclusive judgement from the pics but it looks to be there.

I do see references to the muting switch being a problem with this table. That's going to take some exploratory surgery to check out. Are you up for it?
 
Montycat said:
Can't make conclusive judgement from the pics but it looks to be there.

I do see references to the muting switch being a problem with this table. That's going to take some exploratory surgery to check out. Are you up for it?
Click to expand...
There's some sort of internal muting switch?

Maybe it's helpful to know that on a particular record, it also plays very very quietly, and I only get left channel. If that's related to my main issue here, then maybe I won't have to do muting switch surgery.
 
Are the cartridge leads on the right pins -- you may have two reversed, which would cancel the center mono part of the signal.
And check the connections at the end of the wire also, to make sure they weren't reversed.
 
unclepratt said:
There's some sort of internal muting switch?

Maybe it's helpful to know that on a particular record, it also plays very very quietly, and I only get left channel. If that's related to my main issue here, then maybe I won't have to do muting switch surgery.
Click to expand...

Did it ever work properly for you or was it working like this since you have had it? If it has changed since you got it, when did that occur? Otherwise do you know anything about it's history?

I sold a turntable to someone several months ago. They also bought an amp. They recently complained they could barely hear anything while playing a record and they brought the amp over; it tested fine. They didn't bring the turntable, but when they did I found that the stylus wasn't installed properly. It wasn't the one they took it home with originally but a replacement. Once seated correctly it worked fine.

You might be dealing with something like that. As said above, the wires might be on the wrong pins though I'm not sure if that would be easy to screw up on that table.
 
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